


Bloodborne

by SilenceIsGolden15



Series: Urban Fantasy [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fae, Blood, Burns, Choking, Fairy Keith, Fairy Shiro, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Injury Recovery, Magic, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Protective Allura (Voltron), Protective Pidge | Katie Holt, Protective Shiro (Voltron), Swords, Violence, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 21:49:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17252003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: They may have escaped from Lotor's castle, but the fairy prince isn't done with them yet.





	Bloodborne

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, here's a sequel to my other fae au oneshot, Ironborne. Hope you enjoy!

‘What now?’, as it turned out, was a much harder question to answer than expected. So Pidge does what she does best and breaks the situation down into facts, salvageable chunks of information she could process. 

The facts were these: Pidge was currently concealing three refugees who had barely escaped an evil empire, one of whom was severely injured. These three refugees, as well as the empire in question, all happened to be fairies. Fae. The Fair Folk. Whatever. And for that reason she was also trying to hide them from everyone else aside from her friends, Lance and Hunk.

Great, awesome, fantastic. So… what now?

Currently she and her two human friends were sitting on the floor in her hallway, heavy silence pressing in on them from all directions. On the other side of her bedroom door hid the three fairies, quiet as they tended to Keith’s many burns and injuries he’d suffered at the hands of the Galra prince Lotor. 

Pidge dropped her head to her knees. The day had been excruciatingly long, filled with about fifty adrenaline highs and subsequent drops, and now all she wanted to do was let herself slump sideways and pass out. 

Hunk reached out and rubbed soothing circles on her back. They were all exhausted, dead on their feet, but couldn’t find it in them to rest until they knew Keith was going to be alright. 

At that moment, almost as though summoned by her thought, the door creaked open to reveal the silver haired fae Allura. Her pretty face was lined with exhaustion as heavy as theirs, but the fear she’d been wearing when she’d gone into the room had vanished, which made one of the knots in Pidge’s stomach ease. 

“How’s he doing?” Murmured Lance, peering up at her from his crumpled position on the floor. His jeans were still wrinkled and damp. 

Allura smoothed a hand over her hair, forcing a small smile. “He should be alright. He’ll need several weeks to recover, but he’ll live.”

All of them let out a held breath. Pidge hadn’t gotten a great look at Keith’s injuries, but the ones she could see had been horrifying. Large, blistering, angry red burns wrapping around his torso and his arms, a gnawed raw lower lip, a massive purple bruise on his temple. It really hadn’t looked good. 

“He’s resting with Shiro at the moment.” Allura continued. Her pink wings flicked and fluttered behind her, an action Pidge was quickly recognizing as a sign of anxiety amongst faeries. She cracked her knuckles in response. “I’m afraid I can’t tell how soon he’ll be well enough to leave, but--”

“Wait, what?” Pidge cut her off, confused. “Who said anything about you leaving?”

Allura folded her hands in front of her. Her posture was always so regal, and Pidge found herself wondering in the back of her mind if she was some kind of royalty. It wouldn’t be the strangest thing to happen today.

“Oh, well, I just… I suppose I assumed, considering your family doesn’t know about us, that you would prefer us to move on as soon as possible.”

“Where would you even go?” Argued Lance, straightening up from his slump against the wall. “You can’t go back, the Galra will be scouring the whole forest looking for you.” 

Allura frowned and opened her mouth, but before she could speak Hunk was babbling anxiously.

“You don’t think they’d come out of the forest do you? Like, they won’t come looking here, will they? Will they?”

Though Allura’s face remained composed, Pidge noticed how her knuckles turned white, and she could relate. Based on what Keith had told her about Prince Lotor, she doubted he’d give up on his prisoner so easily. 

“It’s a possibility.” Allura admitted, making Hunk blanch. “Emperor Zarkon only allows Lotor to choose one fae per year. Unless he waited, pursuing Keith is his only option, and Lotor has never been known for his patience.”

Lance groaned and thunked his head back against the wall. “Great. Just brilliant.”

“Pidge.” Allura said, asking for the other girls attention to return to her. “You must understand. If Lotor does come here he will not hesitate to kill anyone who gets in his way, including your family. Us staying puts you all at risk.”

Ice water runs down her spine, and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t hesitate, if even for a split second. But then she steels herself, puts her shoulders back and looks Allura in the eye. 

“Keith can’t be moved right now. And until he’s strong enough to put on his own glamor, you all will be far too exposed to move any significant distance. That spell from earlier took a lot out of Shiro-- yeah, I noticed that-- so going anywhere is basically impossible right now.”

Allura let out a sigh of defeat, shoulders slumping just a bit.

“I merely wanted to ensure your safety.”

“And I appreciate that, but I won’t let you guys go it alone when you’re at such an obvious disadvantage.”

Allura clenched fistfuls of her silver skirt, but before she could continue arguing there’s the slam of a car door from outside, and all of their heads pop up in alarm. 

“Shit.” Pidge cursed. “Someone’s home. Allura, get back in my room. Hunk, Lance, we gotta pretend everything’s fine.”

With a few flaps of her wings Allura had flitted back into the bedroom, closing the door nearly silently behind her while the three humans rushed into the living room and threw themselves upon the couches in what they hoped were casual looking positions. They had barely half a second to catch their breath before the front door was squeaking open to admit Pidge’s older brother. 

“Pidge, I’m home!” He called as he strode inside. He was far taller than her, almost as tall and lanky as Lance, with eyes that matched hers and hair the same color that hung down to his chin. He was also the one that got Pidge started on her faerie kick in the first place after he spotted a faerie ring behind the high school. 

“I can see that, Captain Obvious.” Pidge snorted from her place on the sofa, hoping against hope that her voice didn’t reveal her trepidation. 

Matt wasn’t fazed by her flippant response. “Hey Hunk, Lance. What are you guys up to?”

“Oh, ya know, watching some TV.” Lance said. He was a good actor, and the excuse probably would have worked, if not for…

“Uh, the TV is off.”

Lance froze in panic, and Pidge rushed in with an excuse. 

“Well we  _ were  _ going to watch TV, if these two knuckleheads could agree on what to watch.” Her voice pitched awkwardly in the middle and she cringed, but Matt didn’t seem to notice. 

“I wanted to watch some Animal Planet,” Lance picked up the story effortlessly, tossing a faux playfully annoyed look at Hunk. “But someone only likes to watch the Food Network.”

“Shows about good food will always be more enjoyable than shows about sad animals.” Hunk rebuffed. His eyes still flicked nervously to the hallway every so often, but it was a decent performance. Pidge leaned back against the arm of the couch, giving both of them a stiff half shrug. 

“I still think we should just watch Discovery and be done with it.”

Matt chuckled and shook his head, apparently amused by their fake argument. “You guys have fun with that. I have a robot to build.”

Matt made his way from the living room down the hall towards his room, and for a few blissful minutes there was a sense of relief in the air. He hadn’t picked up on their strange behavior, and somehow hadn’t noticed that Lance was still shirtless under his jacket, and they would probably be safe for a few hours until her parents came home. 

“Whew, that was close.” Mumbled Lance, slumping into the cushions. “Good save Pidge.”

Pidge, however, wasn’t entirely at ease. “That is so not going to work on my mom, though. We need to think of something before they get home or we’re all screwed.”

Once her parents were fooled, all they’d have to do is keep her family out of her bedroom and figure out how to smuggle enough food to the faeries so that no one would notice. Easy-peasy. 

Matt’s voice called down the hallway. “Hey Pidge, that roll of wire is still in your room, right?”

Pidge’s mouth shot open to answer, to tell him no the wire was  _ definitely not in her room,  _ but before she could there was the sound of a door opening and a yelp of surprise, followed by a thump. She exchanged a split second look of panic with her friends before they were all on their feet and rushing for her room. 

Just as they feared the door was open, and when they reached it there was pandemonium in the room beyond. All of the faeries were without their glamours, the markings on their faces strobing purple-pink-red across her bedroom walls in alarm. Keith had managed to raise himself up on his elbows and angle himself away from the door, wings twitching behind him as he eyed the window as a potential escape route. 

Allura stood resolutely between the bed and the door, her wings spread wide as though to make a barrier to protect Keith. And Shiro had Pidge’s terrified brother backed up against the wall next to the door, forearm over his throat, scowling and his purple wings humming angrily. 

“Shiro, no!” She cried instinctively. “That’s my brother!”

“Pidge, what the hell is happening?” Matt squeaked. The wire cutters he’d been carrying had been dropped to the floor, both of his hands up in the traditional surrender position. “Why are there a bunch of angry fairies in your room what the fuck--”

“Matt, shut up.” She snapped. “Shiro, please let him down. He won’t hurt Keith.”

“Wait,  _ Keith? _ ”

Shiro ignored his prisoners question, instead turning to consider Pidge’s expression. Apparently satisfied with her sincerity, he released Matt and took several steps back to join Allura, who laid a quelling hand on his arm. 

Matt slid to the floor, a muttered string of curses flowing past his lips. 

“Well, so much for keeping them a secret.” Muttered Lance. 

“Why do these things always go wrong?” Lamented Hunk. 

Pidge cracked her knuckles and stepped to the side to help her brother to his feet. 

“Matt, this is Allura, Shiro, and Keith.” She introduced, keeping a firm grip on her brothers arm just in case he fell again. “They’re fae from the woods, and they’re going to be staying with us for a bit.”

“No, wait, but I know Keith.” Matt pushed his hair back from his forehead, over and over, his own nervous tic. “I’ve met him before, he was human then.”

“It’s called a glamour.” Allura said in her fancy accent, and Matt visibly startled, as though it hadn’t occurred to him that the faeries could speak. “It allows us to appear human if we wish.”

Pidge could practically hear her brothers brain whirring as he ingested all the new information. “Wait, wait, wait a second. You’re telling me--” His eyes focused in on Pidge, wide and intrigued, “That fairies are actually real, and Keith was one the whole time?”

“Yup.” Lance answered for her, popping the ‘p’. “Welcome to the mad house, enjoy your stay.”

“Ok, ok, ok, but why,” He stands on his tip toes to peer over one of Shiro’s broad shoulders. “Why is he all bandaged up? Why are they here? They’re staying with us? Why? Did you tell Mom and Dad? Honestly, Pidge, what the hell--”

Surprisingly, it was Hunk who interrupted him. “We can talk about all of that somewhere that’s not here, but we should leave them alone, Keith needs to rest.”

Shiro and Allura still maintained their defensive positions, and behind them Keith looked spooked and ready to bolt, bandages and burns be damned. 

“Hunk’s right.” Pidge decided, already tugging Matt out of the room by his arm. “Come on Matt, we can talk in the living room.”

Matt went, though he kept up his stream of questions until Pidge sat him down on the couch and physically put a hand over his mouth. 

“Alright, shut up, and let me explain.”

* * *

Twenty minutes later and the faeries were still struggling to come down from the scare Matt had given them. Allura was mostly calm, but paced the room from the door to the window in an attempt to relieve her nervous energy. Shiro was sat next to the bed, frantically murmuring to Keith, who was honestly just about beside himself. 

“We shouldn’t have come here.” He insisted, the hand that wasn’t being held by Shiro tugging anxiously on his white bangs. “We’re putting them in danger, Lotor is going to find me and when he does he’ll kill all of them, we’re putting them in danger, we have to leave--”

“Keith,” Shiro gave his hand an imploring squeeze. “Please, you need to be calm,  _ kitrennei _ . You’re too hurt to go anywhere, we have to stay.”

Keith shook his head, tried to sit up, only for Shiro to gently press him back down. 

“Keith,  _ please _ .”

He shook his head again. “No Shiro, no, you don’t understand, he’s going to find me, he’s going to find me.”

Shiro reached up to smooth Keith’s hair, trying to swallow the lump in his throat. 

“I won’t let him,  _ kitrennei _ . I won’t let him hurt you.”

“He’ll kill you.” His eyes were welling with tired, frustrated tears. “ _ Kitrennal. _ Please,  _ h’las annin, h’las annin-ra, kitrennal _ .”

“ _ Cal’en tiras, hu’len thalassar. _ ”

Allura, concern in her eyes, climbed onto the bed on Keith’s other side. He turned to her, the movement making the tears spill over his cheeks and run over his red markings. She raised a hand to his forehead, and it wasn’t until that moment that either of the boys noticed how it glowed faintly pink. 

“ _ Kitrathnal? _ ” The question is faint, Keith is already fading as the magic took hold. 

“ _ Quenyel ali, kitel. _ ” Allura answered gently, and not even a second later Keith is fast asleep, tears still leaking from behind his eyelids. 

Shiro lets out a shaky breath and sits back on his heels. His hands are shaking, but whether it’s from rage at Lotor for doing this to his brother or from the adrenaline of Pidge’s brother surprising him, he can’t tell. 

“That was unusual.” Allura remarked quietly, and Shiro had to agree. 

“I haven’t spoken that much Salesi in years.” He said, sitting forward again to wipe the drying tears from Keith’s face. “Not since your father died.”

“I’ve missed it.”

“Me too.”

“Well, if we can’t go back,” Shiro looks up to find Allura watching him, smiling but with sad eyes. “Maybe we can start to use it again.”

Shiro can barely find it in him to answer. “Yeah. Maybe.”

* * *

“We have to tell Mom and Dad.”

All of the revelations that had just been revealed to him, and this was the hill Matt was choosing to die on. Pidge couldn’t believe her ears.

“No we can’t.”

“Why not? They’re going to notice if you don’t let them in your room and suddenly start hoarding food. You need them on your side and you know it.”

“It’s not that simple.” Her and her brother stood on opposite ends of the living room, facing each other down while Hunk and Lance hovered anxiously nearby. “We promised Keith months ago that we wouldn’t tell anyone about him.”

Matt snorted and tossed his head. “He’s in your bed covered in bandages Pidge, I think we’re well past that.”

“That’s not all! Didn’t you hear what we just told you? Ya know, about how they have a psychopathic prince chasing them? Mom and Dad can’t know or they’ll be in danger.”

“Again,  _ he’s in our house _ . Not being aware of that fact won’t keep our parents safe if Prince What’s-His-Name does come knocking.”

Pidge huffed and crossed her arms. She hated to admit it, but Matt did have a point. They weren’t stupid, they were likely to find out sooner or later, and who knows they might have some decent ideas on how to deal with this fucked up situation. 

So, with a resigned sigh, she conceded. 

“Fine. As soon as they get home, we’ll tell our parents about our new fugitive fae houseguests. That’s totally a conversation I’m looking forward to.”

Matt crossed the room to lay an encouraging hand on her shoulder. He was surprisingly relaxed for having been shoved up against a wall by a beefy glowing purple guy twenty minutes before. She told him as much, inspiring a hearty laugh.

“I always figured you’d come home dragging a cryptid one day. Faeries are a lot better than chupacabras.”

He got a solid punch on the arm for that comment.

* * *

The faeries were scarce for the rest of the day. Allura came out of the room a few times to give them a progress report on Keith or to fetch this or that, but Shiro didn’t emerge, and they didn’t get even a glance of Keith. Which was expected, but despite Allura’s reports, their absence made Pidge anxious. That knot of acid anxiety only twisted tighter as the hours passed, the day creeping by as they all waited for Pidge’s parents to return. 

The four humans eventually settled on something to watch on the TV to distract themselves, but it wasn’t doing a terribly good job for Pidge. More often than not she found herself staring blankly and not absorbing a single word or image. Her mind was racing, trying to figure out what she was going to tell her parents and how and trying to predict their reactions. 

It was going on eight in the evening before they heard the tell tale crunch of wheels on the driveway and hum of the car engine. All four of them straightened up, exchanging nervous looks. 

This was it; the moment of truth. 

Two pairs of footsteps on the pavement outside and the door opens. 

“Oh, look, we’ve got a full house.” Her father jokes on his way inside, and Pidge has to fight to swallow the inappropriate bubble of laughter. “How’s everybody doing?”

Lance and Hunk mumble out some kind of polite response. Pidge is already starting to panic, just a little, and her voice squeaks when she finally manages to put words together.

“Mom, Dad, we have something to tell you.”

Her mother frowns playfully at them, the crows feet around her eyes crinkling. “That doesn’t sound good. Did you break a vase?”

“Not quite.” Matt chimed in. 

“Do you guys remember my friend Keith? I think you met him a few times.”

Her parents shuffled into the room, laid their bags on the couch, nodded distractedly a few times. Her mother, Colleen, dropped to a seated position to remove her heels, but her father Sam was watching her carefully over his glasses, as though he could tell something important was on her mind. 

“And you remember how Matt saw that faerie ring a few months back?”

Colleen let out a short chuckle, running a hand through her short cropped blonde hair. You couldn’t tell with him all grey, but she and her brother got their hair color from their dad. 

“How could I forget? The two of you didn’t stop fussing about fairies for weeks after that.”

“Yeah, well, you see, the thing is--” Matt, being unhelpful as always, decided to interrupt again. 

“Faeries are real and Keith is one and he and two of his faerie friends are camping out in Katie’s room right now because he got hurt and now they’re on the run from a mad faerie prince whose dad runs the whole forest.” The words left him in a monumental rush, leaving their parents blinking and confused in their wake and Pidge pinching the bridge of her nose.

“You weren’t supposed to just drop all of that on them out of nowhere!” She scolded, but Matt just shrugged.

“Seemed more efficient.”

“Wait, hold on.” Colleen held up a hand to stop the argument before it began, leaning forward over her crossed legs. “Matt, did you just say fairies are  _ real _ ?”

“That’s what he said, yeah.” Admitted Pidge, scuffing at the carpet with one foot. “I found out about Keith a month or so ago. He was using a glamour to make himself look human while he was around us.”

Colleen blinked slowly. “Matt, Katie, I don’t--”

“You said they were in your room?” Sam interrupted in an infuriating example of ‘like father like son’. “Why don’t you introduce us?”

Pidge’s eyebrows rose in surprise at him, but he stared back with an even expression. He didn’t quite believe, not yet, but he was giving them the benefit of the doubt. Letting them play their joke and move on. Little did he know.

“Alright, but let us go in first, and be careful what you say. Shiro is really protective.”

Warning delivered, her parents followed her down the hall to her occupied bedroom. She knocked quietly before edging the door open and sticking her head inside. Keith was passed out cold on the bed still, while Shiro roused himself from a doze at his side and Allura looked up from the window. 

“Yes, Pidge?”

Her mother murmured behind her at the new voice. Pidge tried her best to ignore it.

“Hey, there are some people I want you guys to meet.” She took a step into the room, opening the door wider to reveal the stunned faces of her parents behind it. “These are my parents, Colleen and Sam.”

Allura regarded them for a moment before turning away from the window and approaching. Her parents stood frozen just outside the door, shock and wonder written all over their faces.

“Hello.” Allura said pleasantly to them, if a bit tiredly. “My name is Allura. I trust Pidge has told you about us?”

Colleen picked her jaw up off the floor long enough to answer the regal faerie. 

“Ah, yes. It’s… nice to meet you.”

Sams attention was on Keith, or at least it was until Shiro stood up, blocking his view.

“What happened?” He asked in a low tone, aimed at Pidge. 

“It’s kinda complicated.” She said with a wry expression. “He’s bandaged cause he got burned pretty bad by some iron, that’s the long and short of it.”

“Iron.” Sam murmured. “Fascinating.”

Shiro bristled at the word, the markings on his cheeks flashing, which of course only made her father's eyes light up more in intrigue. She grabbed his wrist, tugging to get his attention.

“Dad. He’s my friend, remember?”

Sam shook himself out of his reverie. “Right, sorry. And you would be Shiro, yes? How do you know Keith?”

Shiro crossed his arms over his chest. His face had softened a bit, but there was still that dangerous protective gleam in his eye. 

“He’s my brother.” His wings gave an agitated twitch. “If you want us out of your house, we’ll go.”

“Who said anything about that?” Sam responded evenly. “We’ll have to talk to Pidge a bit more obviously, get the full story, but for right now I don’t see any reason for you all to leave.”

Shiro’s guarded facade faltered, and his eyes flicked questioningly to Pidge. She responded with a small nod and the best smile she could muster, and Shiro’s shoulders finally lost their tension. 

“You might change your mind.” He said, but his voice had lost it’s conviction. Now he just sounded tired, which was fair considering they’d woken him up.

Before any of them could speak there was a rustle from the bed, and Shiro had to dart back to keep Keith from rolling over onto his burns. The motion roused him and he peeled his eyes open to peer at Shiro.

“ _ Perenan? _ ”

Pidge frowned and exchanged curious glances with Lance and Hunk, which only multiplied when Shiro’s response came out choked. 

“No, Keith. It’s Shiro.”

Keith blinked and raised a hand to rub his eyes. 

“Oh. Shiro.” He relaxed back against the pillows, the red markings on his cheeks flashing for a moment as he grimaced in pain. 

“How are you feeling?”

Keith hummed, his head lolling against the pillow. He was acting strange, like he’d been drugged, and when he spoke again it was in that strange language.

“ _ Bhesh. Bhesh-ban. _ ” 

“Yeah, Allura helped you sleep.”

“ _ Fav meyzil? _ ”

“Yes,  _ fav meyzil, kitrennei. _ ”

“What’s he speaking?” Pidge asked Allura, who was watching the exchange with a wounded expression that she forced back when she was addressed. 

“It’s Salesi.” She answered, clearing her throat. “It’s the language we used to speak. It was outlawed by Zarkon when he took over.”

Behind her she heard Lance whisper, “That’s so fucked up.” She couldn’t help but agree. 

“I put a bit of a sleeping spell on him to help him rest, that’s why he’s so… distracted.” Allura explained. Her hands clasped together in front of her. 

“What was the first word he said?” That question came from Colleen, who looked near tears for some reason. Maybe she had inferred the meaning of the phrase already. 

Allura bit her lip. “It means father.”

Oh, that was why. Ouch.

“Why don’t we go sit?” She suggested, casting a look at Shiro and Keith, who were still murmuring to each other in Salesi. “I’m sure I can answer any questions you might have.”

“That would be a good idea.” Colleen said. Pidge’s poor mother still seemed a bit off balance from all the revelations, but she kept her composure enough to lead Allura to the living room, followed by the others, leaving Shiro and Keith alone. 

* * *

Pidge’s family stayed up late that night talking to Allura. Lance and Hunk had to go home before nine, but insisted Pidge keep them updated on what Allura told them. 

Honestly, the story was heart wrenching. They’d gotten the SparkNotes version from Keith, but the actual full history of the war with the Galra was a brutal thing that didn’t leave a single one of them dry eyed. In hindsight that might be why Keith didn’t tell them. 

Somewhere around two am the story was complete, and an exhausted Allura returned to Pidge’s room to crawl into bed beside the other two faeries. Her parents set up an air mattress for her in her brothers room, and by three the house was once again dark and still. 

That night Pidge dreamt of hulking purple monsters with golden eyes. 

She was lying awake at seven am, listening to her brother snore, when the quiet squeak of hinges caught her attention. The door to Matt’s room was closed, but she could still hear someone’s footsteps going down the hallway towards the kitchen. They were too heavy to be Allura’s. 

When she followed she was surprised to find Shiro doing a lap of the living room, checking the lock on the front door and peering out the windows. She hesitated in the hall for a moment at the sight of him.

Pidge hated to admit it, but what she’d seen of Shiro so far had been rather intimidating. He’d been hellbent with fire in his eyes when they were searching for Keith, and ever since had been a stone wall of pure protective instinct, not wanting to allow anyone else near or let them see him drop his guard. The only time she’d seen it slip was the night before when he was talking to Keith.

His voice had dropped low and private, his expression going soft. More telling was Keith’s reactions to him. The faerie had always held a certain tension in his body, untrusting, keeping everyone at arm’s length. But around Shiro he just seemed to melt. 

“Shiro?”

The fae jumped, and Pidge saw the purple flash off the wall from his markings before he spun on his heel. Upon seeing her, his shoulders slumped.

“Oh, Pidge.”

“You ok?”

Shiro nodded uneasily, glancing out the window again. “Yes. Just making sure everything is secure.”

His eyes flicked back to her, and then his expression changed into something almost… sheepish. 

“I wanted to apologize.” He said, keeping his voice low as to not wake the rest of the house. “For attacking your brother.” 

Pidge tried to keep her surprise off of her face. 

“It’s alright. He snuck up on you. You didn’t hurt him anyway, just scared him a little.” 

Shiro nodded his thanks with an attempt at a smile, and suddenly Pidge was struggling to remember why she’d been afraid in the first place.

“Do you want some breakfast?” She asked, already dragging her tired body into the kitchen. “None of us ate very much yesterday.”

“That would be nice.” Shiro hesitated only a split second before following her into the other room. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Here, you can help me make some stuff for everybody. Hunk would do it better, but I’ll just have to do.”

They worked together in comfortable silence as they assembled food. It really wasn’t anything special; bowls of cereal, pieces of toast, bagels. But the repetitive, systematic process of assembling the simple meals was enough to soothe her frayed nerves and bring her as close to calm as she was likely to get. 

The bustle in the kitchen drew other members of the house in; first Colleen, bedraggled and reaching for a cup of coffee. Then Sam, cleaning his glasses on his nightshirt as he stumbled in. Last was Matt with his atrocious bedhead. At least, they assumed it would be the last, until the sound of voices reverberated down the hall from Pidge’s bedroom. 

Shiro looked concerned, but before he could set down his toast and go investigate there was the squeak of hinges and a bump where the door knob hit the wall. A moment later Allura came staggering in with one of Keith’s arms slung over her shoulder, and a very pale looking Keith hanging off of her side. 

Shiro cried his name admonishingly and rushed around the kitchen island to his side, but Keith batted him away with a scowl. 

“My legs are fine, Shiro.” He snapped pointedly, and pulled away from Allura to seat himself at the closest island stool. He seemed to be feeling more like himself, far removed from the weak and scared version of him that they’d taken out of Lotor’s castle. Shiro looked a bit offended, but just shook his head in exasperation and returned to his seat, apparently resigned to the fact that he wouldn’t be able to keep Keith in bed. 

“Hey.” Pidge greeted, nodding at him from where she stood on the other side of the island with her bowl of Cheerios. “Good to see you up and about again.”

Keith gave her a smile that made the tips of his markings move up towards his eyes. It was strange, seeing him without his glamour after so long, but he looked so much more comfortable now. Less restrained. 

“Hey Pidge. Thanks for looking for me.” 

“Of course. What are friends for?” She shoved a slice of toast on a paper towel over to him. “Here, you must be starving.”

He was, in fact, starving, and devoured three pieces of toast and a bowl of cereal before Shiro cut him off. He still seemed a bit shaky, and he winced whenever he moved too much and disturbed one of the burns, but he was upright and that was ten steps ahead of where he’d been the day before. 

After breakfast Shiro and Allura corralled him back into the bedroom to change his bandages. Shortly thereafter Hunk arrived on their doorstep, closely followed by Lance, who both stopped in the bedroom to say hello to Keith when they arrived.

They both emerged looking solemn, and Hunk was near tears.

“The burns are bad.” Lance explained when Pidge asked. “They’re definitely gonna leave some nasty scars. And you’re gonna run out of gauze by, like, tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe somebody would do that.” Said Hunk, fisting the tears out of his eyes. “And just… for no reason. For fun. It’s sick.”

“Yeah.” She agreed, cracking her knuckles. “It really is. I’ll ask my mom to run to the store or something for more gauze. In the meantime we should talk to my dad and Allura about long term plans. Evil prince or no evil prince, they can’t stay with my family forever.”

* * *

When Colleen climbed into her car that afternoon, she still felt a bit as though she was having an out of body experience. Or an incredibly vivid dream. Surely she wasn’t about to drive to the drugstore to buy gauze for her daughters injured, faerie friend… right? Surely she was still in the correct reality, where things made sense and the forest wasn’t inhabited by evil faeries? 

She drove to the store in a daze. The town wasn’t exceptionally large-- large enough to have it’s own school, but not enough for everybody to not know everybody else's business. She and her husband were respected members of this community, and she got several greetings on the way into the little corner store, which she returned a bit distractedly. 

Colleen selected three large boxes of gauze, explaining it away to the side-eyeing cashier that Katie was always getting scraped up when she went on her “hikes”. 

Another benefit to living in a small-ish town-- when she exited the store, she immediately noticed the three strange men standing on the sidewalk, and instantly knew they didn’t live there. The realization snapped her back to reality with sudden clarity, and she noted as many features as she could from the corner of her eye as she made her way to the car parked just in front of the store. 

Two of the men looked completely average. One just a bit taller than the other, both well muscled, both with a variant of brown hair. The third was the one who caught her interest, with blonde hair that fell all the way to his hips. As she got into the car, she caught a snippet of an accent not unlike the fae Allura’s. 

She acted as casual as she could as she turned the key in the ignition and rolled one of the windows down to hear better. Flipping down the mirror to give the illusion of checking her appearance, she strained to hear what the men were saying. 

“-s close.” The blonde one was saying. He sounded smug. “He doesn’t know… too powerful… -n’t hide forever…”

She’s only catching bits and pieces, but what she’s hearing is enough to alarm her, especially when she remembered what her daughter had said about glamours. Carefully, Colleen rolls up her window and shifts the car into reverse to back out of her parking spot. 

She keeps her eyes dead ahead, even when she feels someone watching her. She doesn’t look back as she drives away.

* * *

By the time Pidge’s mother returns Keith has argued his way out of the bedroom again, and now the whole group sat in the living room, discussing their next move with Sam. Their conversation is interrupted when the front door opens, and all of them immediately recognize by Collen’s pale complexion that something has happened.

“I think he’s here.” Colleen says before anyone can ask, closing and locking the door behind her. The plastic bag of gauze falls at her feet and remains there, untouched as she turned back to them with wide eyes. “The Prince. I think he’s in town.”

Shiro’s entire body turned cold. Next to him Keith stiffens up, and he exchanges a panicked look with Allura over his head. 

_ He’s found us already? _

“I didn’t hear all of what he was saying.” Colleen continued, standing within the circle of her husband's arms. “But I got a bit. Something about ‘he doesn’t know’ and ‘too powerful’ and ‘can’t hide forever’.”

“What does he mean by that?” Asked Lance, peering up at the fae from where he was sitting on the floor. 

“Can faeries track each other with their magical signature?” Pidge questioned, gears whirring away in her head as she tried to figure out Lotor’s cryptic words. “Is that how you found Keith?”

Allura shook her head with a frown. “No, not unless the faerie in question is incredibly powerful. Not even Lotor is that powerful, nor I, they’d have to be on par with Zarkon. And over long distances you’d have to know exactly which signature you’re looking for to ensure any kind of reliability. I found Keith using a tracking spell.”

“So Keith isn’t…”

“No, Hunk.” Keith said, voice sharp as a blade's edge. “I’m not that powerful. I’m good at glamours and I can fly pretty well and that’s about it. I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

“Either way, it sounds like he’s close.” Shiro butted in. “So we should go.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” That’s Matt, anxiously running a hand through his hair. “If he’s wandering around town and tracking you somehow you might just run right into him.”

“Staying isn’t a good option either.” Allura rises to her feet, ready to begin pacing, only to freeze and stare out the window with a stricken expression. The hair on the back of Shiro’s neck stands up. 

Keith follows her gaze and goes white. “ _ Za’en vareq. _ ” The words are barely a whisper, but already Shiro’s blood is singing and his battlefield training is slamming into him like a falling log tumbling to Earth.

“Get down!” He hissed, grabbing both Allura and Keith by their wrists and yanking them to the floor. The humans are frozen as well as Shiro hauls the other two fae behind the couch, pressing them back against the wall. “Stall! Get him away!” He snapped at them as he dove behind the couch as well.

By this time Allura has recovered herself, breathing slowly and deeply to keep her markings from flashing and giving them away. Shiro copies, listening to the humans shuffle around the living room in an attempt to make themselves look casual, but beside him Keith is shaking, his slash like marks spattering the back of the couch in red light. 

As gently as he can, Shiro lay two fingers on the back of his head and pushed it down towards the floor. 

“Keep your head down,  _ kitrennei _ .” He whispered. Keith let out a small sound and brought his hands to his cheeks in an attempt to cover the light.

There was a stiff, prim knock on the door, three taps. Shiro’s stomach knotted up, and feeling cold sweat drip down his spine, he carefully pulled Keith against him and held his breath. 

Someone opens the door. Whoever it was was probably expecting a conversation, a chance to convince Lotor that he had the wrong house, but they don’t get that chance. 

There’s a scuffle, a bang, and someone screams, “Sam!”

“I know you’re here.” Lotor’s cold, sickly sweet voice makes bile rise at the back of Shiro’s throat. “Come out, and I won’t hurt your little human friends.”

Keith moves his hands from his cheeks to his ears. A tense silence descends over the room, everyone with bated breath. After thirty seconds or so Lotor gave an annoyed huff.

“Fine.” His tone turns sharp as he addresses his underlings. “Search the room.”

There’s a slight scrape, as though someone had been being held against a wall and had now been released, and light footsteps as Colleen rushed to her husband. Shiro released Keith’s shoulders, taking a deep breath and settling into a more crouched position. Lying in wait for an attacker. If he’d glanced over, he would’ve seen Allura doing the same. 

“H-hey!”

Shiro cringed at Lance’s voice. As vital as the kid’s bravery had been back during the rescue, things would’ve gone much easier for him if he’d kept his mouth shut. 

“Who the hell do you think you are? You can’t just waltz in here and--  _ oof! _ ” 

Hunk cried out for him as Lance’s sentence ended with him being struck, having the air knocked out of him. Keith’s hands curled into fists in his white hair. Shiro was too busy counting seconds to notice, waiting, timing for the exact moment when--

An armored head peered around the side of the couch, and Shiro sprang with a brutal uppercut. He felt the reverberation all the way up his arm and into his shoulder, and while the soldier stumbled backwards he took a split second to survey the room.

Sam, stunned and wheezing for breath with his glasses gone, sitting on the floor with his wife twined around him. Matt in the back corner of the kitchen, physically holding back Pidge from doing anything foolish. Lance on his knees, back heaving, Hunk pale and afraid beside him. Allura, using her wings to propel her forward and slam the other soldier against the wall with a crash. 

And in the middle of it all stood Lotor, tall and proud, wearing a knife edge smirk. 

He turned back to his fight just in time to dodge a swing from the soldier’s iron sword, ducking below it and popping back with another strike to the fae’s jaw. This time there was a crack, and the man howled, throwing his sword haphazardly aside as he went at Shiro with his bare hands. 

The two of them grappled. Dimly, through the roaring of blood in his ears, he could hear Allura struggling against her guard. He heard her cry out as she was defeated, heard Lotor snickering in the background.

_ I’m not letting this happen, I’m not letting him have Keith, not again, I’m not letting this happen again, I’m not! _

He doesn’t have a choice.

The guard gets lucky, sweeps his leg under Shiro’s feet and sends him stumbling over the rough carpeting of the Holt’s living room. Once he’s off balance he grabs a handful of Shiro’s bangs and slams his head into one of the end tables. He feels the skin split, feels the blood gush down his temple even as the room spins around him. He tries to get up. He tries so hard, but his opponent plants a boot between his shoulder blades and grabs hold of one of his arms. 

He twists until Shiro feels tears springing into his eyes and he stops struggling. 

In the background, Lotor is clapping. 

“What a wonderful performance.” He said, chuckling a bit to himself. “Wonderful, and so pathetic. I’m truly moved.”

Shiro lifted his head enough to scowl at him, but the Prince paid him less attention than he would a gnat. 

“Now then, you little brat.” Lotor strode forward until he could grab a corner of the couch, dragging it roughly to the side to expose Keith, pale and trembling and so, so angry. “Found you.”

Keith launched himself from the floor, not at the Prince but rather past him, trying to get away with a quick burst of speed from his wings. But Lotor doesn’t even seem bothered as he catches Keith by the throat and throws him back to the floor. 

He lets out a series of rattling coughs as he rises to his knees. Undoubtedly he would’ve tried again if Lotor hadn’t knelt before him and fisted a hand into the hair at the back of his neck, harshly yanking to make Keith look at him.

His eyes sparkle with rage, and Lotor laughs. 

“You really thought you could get away from me? You  _ really _ thought I’d let you go when you have that much power in you? Such a child.” With a closed fist he struck Keith on the chest, right on one of the burns, and Keith screamed a scream so raw it made Shiro try to struggle again. Across the way, held with her arms behind her back, Allura was doing the same. 

“How sad that no one else noticed, not even the former princess. It’s all locked away-- none of you even knew what to look for.”

He hauled Keith to his feet, able to hold him still with only the hand in his hair and the other around his arm, not even flinching as Keith fought him. 

“Stop!” Shiro shouted, kicking and fighting even as the guard twisted his arm in warning. “Let him go! Don’t touch him!”

Lotor jerked his head at the guard, and Shiro’s vision went white as his shoulder was torn from its socket. 

“ _ No!  _ Shiro!” 

“Oh, now that is interesting.”

When his vision returned to him it was to a terrifying sight: Lotor, holding Keith still as he stared intently into his eyes with a calculating gaze.

“I could’ve sworn your eyes changed for a moment just then.” Lotor drawled. “I wasn’t able to get it out of you with pain, but maybe if I hurt someone else…”

Keith’s eyes widened, and his mouth opened to protest just as Lotor nodded to the guard again. He drove the toe of his boot into Shiro’s ribs, making him gasp, then did it again, and again, and again. 

“No, Shiro, no, please, stop it, I don’t know what you want from me,  _ please _ \--”

The soldier stomped down on Shiro’s rib cage, and he let out a scream as several of the bones snapped. 

“I’ll go with you! I’ll do what you want just stop hurting him!”

“Hmmmm.” Lotor peered down at his desperate prisoner while Shiro watched through clouded eyes. He needed to get up, he had to do something, but so much of him hurt. Probably no one would blame him if he passed out. Probably.

“Not good enough.” The Prince decided and cut his eyes to the soldier. “Kill him.”

Several people screamed at that. One was Allura. One sounded like it might have been one of the Holt’s, possibly Pidge. One was definitely Keith. 

He expected the soldier to pick up his discarded sword, but instead he straddled Shiro, bringing his hands up to his throat. Shiro fought back as best he could with one good arm and at least three broken ribs, but the soldier didn’t even blink, and the next thing he knew he was struggling to draw in a breath. 

Keith screamed and screamed in the background, but whatever Lotor was looking for he wasn’t finding it. Shiro’s ears were ringing, his vision beginning to tunnel, burning pain in his chest.

He fought, but even as he struggled he knew it was pointless. He was going to die, and his only regret would be that he failed to protect Keith. 

* * *

Fire. Shiro was dying, he was being murdered, because Keith couldn’t give the stupid prince what he wanted, and all he could feel was fire. It burned under his skin, so wildly he was surprised it didn’t come boiling out of his mouth as he shouted and yelled and cried for Lotor to stop. The tears running down his cheeks did nothing to douse the flames. 

Shiro was fading. His arm dropped from where it had been grasping at his killer, fell limply to his side. His eyes fluttered shut. Allura let out a sob as his body went still under the constricting hands. 

Something in Keith snapped, stinging as it lashed against the sides of his ribcage. The next thing that came from his mouth wasn’t a scream, it was a howl, a war cry.

In one sweeping moment, the fire left him. 

It wasn’t fire that came out. No, it was just something… red, a wave that expanded around him and from him that crashed over the room like a tsunami. Furniture went tumbling, wedging into the walls. Pictures fell and shattered on the floor. Windows blew out. The kitchen became a mess of clanging metal. 

The force threw Lotor and his men like rag dolls. Lotor went the furthest, turning somersaults all the way back to where Sam and Colleen huddled against the wall. The one pinning Allura went crashing into the TV, showering the carpet with safety glass. The other was forced off of Shiro and sent directly into a corner, where his head hit at the wrong angle and his body went limp. 

Shiro sucked in a breath and began to hack up his lungs into the carpet. 

The second the wave was gone Keith fell to his knees. His head spun, his burns seared, his whole being felt achingly empty, hollow. Across the room Lotor forced himself up, hair tousled and eyes wild. 

“I knew it.” He hissed with a sickening smirk. “I knew it was you.” He struggled to his feet, but Keith couldn’t move. “I knew you were the one who held the power, I could smell it on you.”

Had he really done this? All of this… destruction? How?

Lotor strode forward once again, though this time his stride was trembly. 

“You will be my father’s greatest weapon.” He was saying, though Keith couldn’t hear a word. “All I have to do is tame--” 

_ Squelch _ .

The strange sound made Keith raise his head. The Prince was standing there still, staring down dumbly at where the tip of a sword protruded from his chest. He gasped, and with another sickening sound the sword was pulled free, and the Prince crumbled to the floor. 

Behind him stood Allura, tears streaming down her face from where the hilt of the iron sword was burning her hands. It thudded dully to the carpet.

Silence.

“Holy. Fucking. Shit.” Lance, predictably, was the first one to break it. There was a thump from the kitchen as Matt slid to the floor, and Pidge rushed forward to her parents. 

Keith turned to look at Shiro and found him reaching for him. He crashed into his brother, clinging despite his burns protesting and listening desperately to the breath wheezing in and out of his chest. 

“ _ H’las tilosh, kitrennal, h’las tilosh, h’las tilosh-ra, tilosh tilosh tilosh _ \--”

Shiro squeezed him tight with his good arm. 

Allura dropped to her knees beside them, holding her hands out before her gingerly. The entire surface of her palms and fingers were red and blistering from the iron, but she had her gaze fixed intently on Keith.

“I can feel it.” She murmured through her tears. “Now that I know what to look for, I can feel it.”

Keith’s heart quailed in his chest, and for a moment he couldn’t find the breath to speak. 

“ _ Kitrathnal? _ ”

She stared at him for a long few seconds before springing forward and throwing her arms around his neck. The three of them collapsed into a pile of relieved, pained tears while the dust settled around them. 

“Geez, you guys are really messed up.” Lance’s voice came from nearby, and with great weariness Keith lifts his head. He and Hunk are hovering anxiously over the three of them, like they wanted to help but didn’t know what to do. 

“Pidge’s mom is a doctor.” Said Hunk. Dimly, Keith thinks to himself  _ Isn’t that convenient  _ as Hunk continues. “I’m sure she can get you guys all fixed up in no time.”

Pidge’s voice pipes up, mechanical in her shock. “What do we do with the bodies?”

Allura sits up, straightens her spine even though her hands must still be killing her. She throws a scornful look at Lotor’s corpse. 

“Cover them with something and put them outside.” She instructed. “They’ll turn to dust before dawn.”

The other Holts were beginning to gather themselves. The shock still sat thick in the air, ready to crash down at any moment, but the humans were already picking themselves up and moving on. One problem solved, and on to the next. 

“ _ Cal’en tiras,  _ Keith.” Shiro rasped. 

Keith buried his face in Shiro’s neck and tried to believe him.    
  


**Author's Note:**

> Translations:  
> Name of Language: Salesi (Sahl-ess-ee)  
> Nei- suffix for young or little, attached to noun  
> Nal- suffix for old or big, attached to noun  
> Ha- I  
> Las- am  
> H’las- contraction, I’m  
> Annin- scared, afraid (pronounced AH-neen)  
> Ra- so, added onto the end of adjective  
> “H’las annin, h’las annin-ra.”- I’m scared, i’m so scared.   
> Kitren- brother  
> Cal- It  
> Cen- Is  
> Cal’en- contraction, it’s  
> Tiras- alright, a soothing phrase  
> Hu- you  
> Len- are  
> Hu’len- contraction, you’re  
> Huen- contraction, your (pronounced hewn)   
> Za- he  
> Ze- her  
> Zo- they  
> Za’en- he’s (zah-ehn)  
> Z’en- she’s (zen)  
> Thalassar- safe, secure  
> “Cal’en tiras, hu’len thalassar.”  
> Kitrath- sister  
> Kitel- Child  
> Nath- girl  
> Nen- boy  
> Nathnei- little girl  
> Nennei- little boy  
> Quenyel- sleep  
> Ali- now (AH-lie)  
> Perenan- father (pear-nan)  
> Marenan- mother   
> Bhesh- tired, sleepy, etc (besh)   
> Ban- really, suffix   
> Fav- (fahv) with  
> Meyzil- magic   
> Falon- curse (shit, fuck, crap, etc.,) (fal-ohn)  
> Valeq- here (vah-lek)   
> Tilosh- sorry


End file.
